I've been thinking about Radiation's status effect and how it could better reflect its namesake.
Heat burns, Toxin poisons, and Electricity electrocutes. Each behaves in a way we'd naturally associate with its element.
Yet Radiation causes enemies to become confused and attack one another.
While confusion certainly has its uses, I've always felt Radiation could have a more fitting identity.
Radiation should radiate.
My proposal is to turn Radiation into an uncapped damage-over-time status, with a unique mechanic inspired by radioactive half-life and cascading propagation.
Rather than simply being another DoT, Radiation would spread outward through enemies, becoming weaker, faster, and shorter-ranged with each successive decay.
How would it work?
When Radiation is applied, a six-second decay countdown begins.
Radiation stacks would deal damage over time, with damage scaling according to the number of stacks.
Once the countdown expires, the stacks halve (rounding down), and the reduced stacks propagate to every eligible enemy within range.
Each successive decay would also take half as long.
For example, an enemy with 10 stacks:
| Time |
Stacks |
Next decay |
| 0s |
10 |
6s |
| 6s |
5 |
3s |
| 9s |
2 |
1.5s |
| 10.5s |
1 |
0.75s |
| 11.25s |
0 |
Expired |
At each decay, the remaining stacks propagate outward, potentially creating new radioactive sources.
An enemy with only one stack would still suffer damage but couldn't propagate the status further.
Additional Radiation applications would strengthen existing effects without resetting their decay countdowns.
Propagation Radius
I'd also suggest that Radiation's propagation radius scale with its stacks, with diminishing returns.
For example:
- 2 stacks: 3 metres
- 5 stacks: 5 metres
- 10 stacks: 8 metres (soft cap)
- 20 stacks: 8.5 metres
- 40 stacks: 9 metres
- 160+ stacks: 10 metres maximum
The radius would be calculated using the stacks present before decay.
This means each successive propagation would become smaller, reflecting the diminishing strength of the original Radiation.
Death-Triggered Propagation
Since Warframe has fast-paced combat, waiting six seconds for Radiation to spread could be impractical.
Therefore, killing an irradiated enemy would immediately trigger its next decay and propagation.
This would allow players to deliberately accelerate Radiation cascades by killing affected enemies.
Independent Chains and No Backtracking
Each Radiation chain would retain its own propagation history.
An enemy could only be affected once by a particular chain, preventing the same Radiation from endlessly bouncing between targets.
However, independently originating chains could affect the same enemies.
For example, Radiation originating from Enemy A couldn't eventually propagate back to A. But a separate chain originating from Enemy C could still affect A.
This would allow multiple Radiation cascades to overlap without individual chains repeatedly re-infecting the same targets.
Unique Radiation Interactions
I also think this could create interesting opportunities for three Radiation-focused Warframes.
Nyx: Confusing Radiation
Radiation originating from Nyx's abilities could additionally confuse enemies through her passive.
Chaos could apply Radiation stacks that spread confusion through subsequent cascades, allowing it to affect newly arriving enemies in exchange for a shorter initial duration.
Oberon: Righteous Radiation
Radiation originating from Oberon's abilities could additionally weaken enemy defences, reflecting the Armour reduction already present in his kit.
Qorvex: Ruinous Radiation
Radiation originating from Qorvex's abilities could trigger additional damage bursts whenever stacks decay, scaling with the number of stacks lost.
His Crucible Blast could potentially accelerate existing Radiation decay, complementing his current explosive chain reactions.
Why Change Radiation?
I think this would give Radiation a distinctive identity compared with Electricity and Gas.
Electricity damages enemies around an affected target. Gas creates persistent damaging clouds.
Radiation would instead create expanding chains of contamination, with each generation becoming weaker, faster, and shorter-ranged.
It could also make Radiation a more appealing progenitor bonus for Kuva and Tenet weapons.
Obviously, damage scaling, propagation radius, and overlapping chains would need balancing.
My goal isn't necessarily to make Radiation stronger than every other status.
It's to make Radiation behave in a way that reflects what it actually represents.
I've written a more detailed proposal covering the mechanics, examples, potential balancing concerns, and Warframe interactions on the official forums:
Full proposal: https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1530565-radiation-status-rework-what-if-radiation-actually-radiated/
I'd love to hear what other players think. Would a cascading half-life mechanic make Radiation more interesting, or are there potential problems I'm overlooking?
